Current systems for monitoring traffic conditions are based on observing vehicles directly with the use of video cameras installed on the poles. Traffic is observed by individuals and broadcast to the drivers via televisions or radios. Various problems are encountered with this system. One such problem is that information is not instantly updated and immediately delivered to the driver. Also, it does not provide estimate travel time between two points on a route. Moreover, it does not provide average vehicle speeds on other roadways or comparative roadway traffic information to the drivers to choose alternate routes, etc.
Some of the recently developed systems such as U.S. Pat. No. 6,236,933 include monitoring traffic on selected routes using the Global Position devices. These devices obtain the physical location information of the vehicles and the velocity of the vehicle is determined right at the moving vehicle. These systems are device-centric. In other words, all the intelligence is at the device to obtain the traffic information of the routes. However, such systems provide velocity of all vehicles on the selected routes regardless of whether these vehicles are located on a completely empty road or in heavy traffic or in a zone where traffic has been disrupted due to construction on the road or due to a recent accident on the road. Therefore, excess data is received from the devices even when there is no need to obtain the same.
Therefore, a need exists to provide wireless, accurate, instantaneous, sufficiently dense traffic information without relying on devices equipped with GPS or any other systems that are device centric.